Taxpayers face €14m e-voting storage bill

THE e-voting fiasco is set to cost taxpayers another €14 million, on top of the €52m already wasted on the failed initiative, TDs warned yesterday.

With the bill for storing the mothballed poll machines running at €696,000 a year, deputies from across the political spectrum demanded the Government cut its losses and scrap the equipment.

Members of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed concern that with little prospect of the system being used at the next general election, and a life-span of around 20 years, the final cost of storing the machines could top €14m.

Green Cork TD Dan Boyle said: “There is no way these machines will be used in next year’s election and, by the time of the following one, they will be ten years old and probably have been overtaken by new technology.

“We should be looking at finding a buyer for them, not wasting another €14m keeping them in storage.”

Labour’s finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton, hit out at the “extraordinary” price of the programme.

“This is an incredible bill for the taxpayer to bear - €14m. This can’t just be allowed to go on,” she said.

The squall erupted after Local Government Department accounting officer Niall Callan revealed the cost of storage and insurance of the 7,504 machines.

He stressed talks were under way with the Department of Defence to try to find a centralised storage area for the machines.

Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy said the scrap value of selling off the equipment could be “significant” and would mean taxpayers could salvage something from the scheme.

The national roll-out of the poll machines was halted in 2004 following questions over security and reliability.

PAC chairman and former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan TD pressed Mr Callan on whether there was a contingency plan in place to use the machines for the next general election.

Mr Callan replied that the department’s focus remained on validating the system.

This drew an exasperated response from Mr Noonan who said Mr Callan’s response “verged on the ridiculous” given the amount of time that would be needed to sort out the e-voting system before the general election expected next year.